Scotts Valley to discuss community-based energy supplier

SCOTTS VALLEY -- The possibility of creating a community-based energy supplier has been gathering support in recent weeks, with Santa Cruz County officials throwing their weight behind a feasibility study Tuesday, and Scotts Valley leaders set to discuss the matter at Wednesday's﻿ City Council meeting.

A committee made up of representatives from the county and participating municipalities is now being formed, with the county joining Capitola as a supporter, and Watsonville and Santa Cruz not far behind, Gine Johnson, a member of the county's Commission on the Environment, said Tuesday.

Once that body is formed, a feasibility study will be conducted to determine the pros and cons of moving forward with the project. If the idea comes to fruition, a special district would be formed to provide an alternative to PG&E, supplying energy from wind, solar and other renewable sources to cut back on greenhouse gas emissions. In 2010, voters turned down a ballot measure funded by PG&E that would have forced local governments to win two-thirds voter approval before establishing or expanding a public power system.

Part of the feasibility study involves collecting data from the various communities to find out how much energy they use, what kind of infrastructure is needed and a cost-benefit analysis. Johnson estimated the study will take up to six months to complete, and it's expected to cost about $150,000. But funding will come from private donations and the state, not local coffers, according to the council's board packet.

So-called Community Choice Aggregation has been allowed in California since AB117 passed in 2002.

"People locally have been interested in this for quite a while, but nobody did it," Johnson said. Marin County has already established its own nonprofit energy supplier, Marin Clean Energy, and Sonoma and San Francisco are working to set up their own, so "the local conversation got serious in the last year."

In related business, city leaders will discuss partnering with Santa Cruz to dispose of organic waste at the Santa Cruz Wastewater Treatment Facility, where the waste would be broken down to generate energy. The city currently trucks the sludge to a facility in Marina, and despite added infrastructure costs, the new arrangement would result in annual savings of $70,000.

The council also will receive an update from the arts commission about various beautification projects in the pipeline. Among them is a plan to commission a steel, earth-toned sculpture that would be placed in the median on Scotts Valley Drive by the summer. Commission members also are working on a proposal to host a film festival centered around Alfred Hitchcock, who once owned an estate in Scotts Valley.